Jane Doe
by almondina
Summary: A simple story about a boy, a girl and his TARDIS. Well, a boy, a girl, his TARDIS and a parallel universe. Well, parallel universe and a random little girl who suddenly appears in their living room. Ok, maybe not "simple"…
1. -prologue-

-prologue-

"Concentrate."

"I can't," the little girl replied, sounding frightened.

"Please, sweetheart, concentrate. You can do this."

"Can't won't haven't won't haven't can't can't can't haven't haven't won't haven't," her head twitched violently as she stammered out the syllables like a record needle trying vainly to escape a groove.

"STOP!" The girl jerked her head up, the spell broken by the soft touch of a familiar hand on her right arm. She tilted her head to one side, her long messy hair falling to shadow her face. She looked down, mesmerized, at the edge of thumb touching her bare wrist.

The other followed her gaze down and sharply inhaled. Neither of them had noticed that her shirt sleeve had ridden up during the last fit.

"You can do this." The girl laughed in response. A dark, bitter sound, far too harsh to be coming from such a tiny mouth.

"I really can't, you know," she said in a low voice.

Abruptly, she threw her head back, eyes staring up at nothingness, her pupils impossibly large. Her left hand shot over and gripped the other's hand, clutching it tightly, forcing it into further contact with her bare skin.

"Oh, the things you've done," the girl laughed. "And will do. Soon! Soon..." she trailed off, bringing her head down to stare into the alarmed face before her. Her eyes widened in horror. "He is coming. I saw it. I can see, I will see, oh, God, the lights, the lights, they're blinking. Always blinking. Smaller and smaller. More and more. Please don't blink..."

The girl gasped as the other's hand was wrenched away from her grip.

"Calm down."

"But you're going... oh God, oh God, they're there. They will be there. They have been there," the girl shook her head violently and closed her eyes. "What have I done? What am I doing? What..."

Her voice puttered out to a stop and everything was silent. The girl took a shaky breath. She knew what was to happen. If she was honest, she had just been ignoring it all this time - hoping that just this once, maybe just this once, she was wrong.

"I'm so sorry," the girl said quietly, standing up to face the figure sitting before her.

"Sorry for what?" For the first time that the girl could remember, the normally calm, steady voice had a tint of alarm and fear. The girl gently reached to cradle the face before her.

"This," the girl whispered as she pressed her lips to the other's forehead. 


	2. -preserve the line-

-one-

"Mum, no," Rose Tyler sighed, flopping wearily back against the sofa and closing her eyes. It had been a very long day.

"But listen, sweetheart! Catherine said that he's absolutely charming!" Jackie Tyler enthused, setting down her ever-present cup of tea on the small table next to them.

"I don't care!"

"Just give him a chance! He's smart and handsome, oh, and he's just wonderful with children - "

"I don't need a bloody assis - wait, what does any of that matter?!" Rose exclaimed, sitting straight up.

"I'm just saying... you're not getting any younger."

"Neither are you!"

"And I want to be a grandmother, Rose!" Jackie continued, ignoring her daughter. Rose rolled her eyes.

"Here we go again."

"Well, you just keep dancing around it! Don't you want kids, sweetheart?"

"Mum, don't start," Rose groaned. "Can't you just go bug Tony about it in a few years?"

"I don't understand why we can't at least talk about it!" Jackie exclaimed. "I mean, really, ignoring all the fun parts about it - "

"MUM!" Rose was absolutely mortified.

"Shouldn't you being doin' it just to, I dunno, preserve the line or somethin'?"

"No! Please," Rose grabbed her mother's hands and looked her dead in the eye. "Say it as much as you want to me, but please don't ever ever mention this to - "

"Rose." The quiet voice from the doorway startled Rose and Jackie. Jackie's eyes narrowed slightly as she took in the tall lanky figure leaning against the doorjamb with that exasperatingly familiar, but infinitely unreadable expression.

"Doctor, when do I get grandchildren?" Jackie demanded, standing up to face him. Aghast, Rose yanked her mother back down next to her.

"Mum," she muttered. "What was I just saying?"

"No idea," the Doctor replied distractedly, "I've never gone into your personal future. Well, I may have gone once to check on some things. Well, maybe more like a couple. Doesn't really matter, it would be completely different over here. Rose?"

"Yes, Do-"

"I want grandchildren, do you understand me?" Jackie insisted, jerking her arm from Rose's grasp and marching over to stand in front of the Doctor. His face softened without warning.

"Oh, grandchildren are wonderful," he murmured almost to himself with a smile.

Jackie stared at the man, trying to understand the deep, profound sadness that had somehow woven its way into his gaze. She always forgot for some reason that this youthful looking man-child was decades upon decades older than she was. That even after all this time, she still knew almost nothing about the past of the man who whisked her daughter off of her feet all those years ago.

"So!" The Doctor burst out of his reverie and bounced twice on the balls of his feet. "I'm hoping that your questions have nothing to do with my question, Jackie."

"And what question is that?" Rose asked, laughing as her mother tried to adjust to the sudden change of topic and mood. The Doctor pulled Rose to her feet off of the couch and into his arms. He spun her once before setting her back down. She leaned back into him and sighed contentedly. He reached up with steady hands and gently turned her head slowly in the direction of the large windows. He reached out and pointed at the floor with his right hand. Rose's eyes widened as she looked down; her hand flew to her mouth with a sharp intake of breath.

"Why is there an unconscious child in the living room?" the Doctor asked softly in Rose's ear. 


	3. -help me-

-two-

"But that's impossible!" Jackie sputtered, breaking into Rose's stunned silence. "She wasn't there a minute ago!"

"Rose, please go get my medical bag. It's in the hall," the Doctor said calmly without turning. Rose nodded and quickly ran from the room.

"How did she get here?!" Jackie demanded as the Doctor swiftly crossed the room to kneel down over the little girl. He whipped out his sonic screwdriver and did a quick preliminary scan of her body.

"Nothing broken," he announced. "Seems to be an ordinary child on the outside."

"What d'ya mean on the outside?! And how did she get in here?! Is this another of your damn alien invasions? Draw them in like a magnet, you do!" The Doctor turned and looked at Jackie.

"Jackie, I know we've grown much closer over the years since this me came to live in Pete's World. So please understand that I don't take nearly as much joy in this as I used to, but still, SHUT IT."

Laughing at her mother's expression, Rose flew to the Doctor's side with the requested medical bag. Jackie crossed her arms and flopped down onto the sofa.

"Who is she?" Rose asked. The Doctor pulled out his glasses and dug into the bag.

"Dunno," he replied, reaching his arm much further into the bag than should have been physically possible.

"Is... Is she human?" This question caused the Doctor to pause and stare at the child, grasping to articulate the vague swimming of thoughts and gut reactions.

"At least partially, I think," he finally said. His eyes widened. "AHA!" he crowed triumphantly, pulling out a tiny object that appeared to be a small stick of lip balm.

"Got chapped lips, does she?" Jackie called out, peering over at them from her stubborn perch on the sofa. The Doctor ignored her. He uncapped the item and began waving it gently under the girl's nose.

Without warning, the girl began to cough violently. Rose wrinkled her brow in concern and began scooting around to the other side. The Doctor grabbed Rose's arm, stopping her mid-motion.

"Do not go over there right now," he said calmly. "You too, Jackie," he called over his shoulder. "No one is to go to the other side of this room until I say so, got it?" Rose nodded and gently took the little girl's hand into her own.

The child sat straight up, gasping for air, as though she were drowning. She stared at Rose, her eyes wide, dark and wild.

"You were the same as me once, you know," the child said in a dark, low voice. Almost too low for a young girl. "Were. Are. Will be." She took a shaky breath and wrenched her hand from Rose's grasp.

The child looked wildly around the room, her eyes darting from place to place, moving constantly, slowly looking at everything from one end to the next. She stopped when she saw the Doctor. She reached out and grabbed the sleeve of his jacket tightly.

"Father, please, help me," she pleaded, staring up at the Doctor.

"FATHER?!" Jackie shrieked from the couch. The Doctor ignored her and looked into the girl's eyes. They were wide, frightened, desperate. The child was obviously terrified. But there was something about them...

He leaned a bit closer. The girl stared back, pleading. Her pupils so large that he couldn't even be certain of her eye color. It seemed to keep changing, flickering.

Then he saw the flash of gold blaze across them.

The Doctor wrenched out of the child's grip and moved back. He grabbed Rose's hand and moved her behind him.

"Who are you?" he asked in a low voice.

"Father, please," the girl repeated. "I can't... no one else can help me. I've run so far..."

"So ya already had a kid hidden away somewhere, huh?" Jackie had come to stand behind him. He could feel her anger.

"How old is that girl there anyway?" Jackie continued. "She can't be more than six or seven. An' you've been here longer than that! You little alien bastard! Did you run out on my Rose?!" Jackie was deep into her anger - in that moment when she could just feel the words washing over her, unstoppable.

"Mum, not now," Rose had moved back beside her mother and was trying to lead her away from the situation that had begun to unfold.

"Goin' on about grandchildren like that. I bet you have kids all over the universe! Knockin' up girls here and there and - "

"She's not my child, Jackie," the Doctor said in a very controlled voice. Rose knew that voice. That was the slow boil. He was barely controlling himself at this point.

"An' how do you know that?!" Jackie asked before Rose could stop her.

"Because all of my children are dead!" the Doctor yelled, turning from the little girl to face Jackie. Jackie recoiled without thought, moving several steps back. She became very fearful of the man before her. She had seen glimpses of his anger before, but never like this - never directed at her.

The Doctor swallowed hard and closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths to regain his composure. He opened his eyes and looked into the fearful gaze of Jackie Tyler. He wanted to kick himself. The brave, passionate, angry, fiercely protective Jackie Tyler, finally completely terrified - and of him. He smiled lamely in apology.

"My children, my grandchildren - all of them are gone," he said at last. "It... it was a long time ago."

Jackie looked at Rose, who silently nodded and put her arms around her mum in a half hug.

"I - I'm sorry," Jackie said lamely.

"They're not," the little girl said quietly. The trio turned to focus on the strange child. Not all of them.

"You really do not want to push that button," the Doctor said in a low voice. The child stood and looked past them, her eyes unfocused.

"She was off-world," the child replied in a calm voice. "The lost child of Gallifrey. Abandoned, but loved. Never spoken of, but never forgotten."

Rose looked at the Doctor, waiting for his response, but none came. He was staring at this little girl, his expression unreadable even to her.

The girl jerked her head and stared at the Doctor.

"I will save her," she muttered quietly. "I am saving her. Have saved will will will save have have," her voice rose with each word, becoming more and more frantic. "am am am am am am saving now now have saved have will will am going to will go to have gone gone have am am save saving saved save save saving" the child was jerking and twitching as she spoke, panic in her eyes, as though she were possessed. In one swift motion, she reached out and roughly grabbed the Doctor's hands with a strength not matching her youth, and dragged him down next to her. She grasped his head in her hands, placing her fingers on his temples.

The Doctor's eyes snapped shut and head flew back for a split second before he audibly yelped and wrenched himself from the girl, leaping to his feet and taking a few steps back. He stared at her, breathing heavily.

"Help me," the child pleaded, sinking to the floor. The Doctor nodded.

"Rose Tyler! he exclaimed, jumping jarringly into his cheerful saving-the-world mode. Please grab the blue bottle and that handy dandy self-sterilizing needle out of my bag if you would!"

"...The blue? But that's - "

"Yup! Quickly now!" he said with a brilliant smile. He leaned over the child and smiled. "Ok, sweetheart, let's get you somewhere comfortable, ok? I need you to concentrate, though."

"I can't, it's coming again," the girl looked around helplessly.

"You can," the Doctor said calmly. "Look at the couch here, ok?" He leaned back and pointed at the couch. "Concentrate on the pattern. Those garish colours."

"Oi!" Jackie piped up, offended.

"I'm gonna move you there, ok?" The girl tensed up. "Relax," the Doctor continued in that same calm, pleasant voice. "I'll be careful. You won't be getting any interference."

He carefully picked up the girl, making sure to not touch any skin and walked over to the couch, passing Rose who was hilariously halfway inside the bag, digging around with only her bum and legs hanging wildly outside the small satchel. The Doctor laid the girl down on the couch and handed her a side pillow.

"Just look at the pattern. The slightly off centre flowers, the way none of it quite goes together."

"Got it!" a muffled voice yelled.

"Bring it here, quickly," the Doctor called over without ever breaking eye contact with the girl. He continued his calm, bizarrely critical description of Jackie's favourite sofa. "Feel the density of the cushions, how it's not quite soft enough to be comfortable, but not hard enough to complain about."

Rose hoisted her top half out of the bag and yanked the top of the blue bottle off with her teeth. She expertly grabbed the syringe and filled it with the pale blue liquid. She passed it into the Doctor's outreached hand like she'd done a thousand times before.

"I'm gonna use this to calm you down so I can see what's going on, ok?" the Doctor held up the syringe to show the little girl. She nodded. "And you want me to look inside to see how to help you, yeah?" The girl nodded again.

"You won't believe me otherwise," she replied.

"Well," the Doctor tilted his head with a grin. "You'd be surprised what I believe."

"No. I've seen it. You didn't believe me." The girl's definitive words sent a chill down the Doctor's spine and his face faltered for a split second. The girl smiled sadly.

"Right then!" he exclaimed cheerfully, brandishing the syringe with a disturbing amount of glee. "I haven't gotten to do this in years!" He swiftly injected the fluid into the girl's arm and watched as her eyes fluttered shut. As soon as she passed out, his manic expression dropped. He watched her for a few seconds, dragging his hand down his mouth and chin.

He turned back to the mother and daughter staring at him. He handed Rose the empty syringe with a grateful smile.

"What d'ya got against my sofa?" Jackie asked.

"What?" the Doctor asked distractedly. "Oh, nothing, I was just trying to keep her from going completely insane and possibly annihilating us all in the process."

"What?!" Rose and Jackie exclaimed. He waved their concerns off with a flick of his hand.

"Jackie, I need something very important from you," the Doctor put his hands on her shoulders.

"You need a nice cuppa?"

"Bless you, Jackie Tyler." Jackie patted his arm and left the room. The Doctor sank into the nearby armchair and sighed, staring over at the sedated girl.

"Doctor?" He could feel Rose's eyes on him, but hadn't processed the events enough yet to meet her gaze. He used to be able to somewhat ignore her questions, to dance around them and distract her enough to not say things he couldn't. But not now, not after everything they'd been through to get to this point, not in this body, not with this single heart that was undeniably hers.

"Yes?" He finally said, before she could get annoyed at the lack of response. He dreaded her questions. Who was that girl? Why did you flinch? Why did you have to sedate her? What do you mean annihilate us all?

But Rose Tyler, defender of the Earth, crosser of universes, former bringer of life and death, knew. If she had learned nothing else from their years together and the struggles to get there, she had learned when certain questions would be too much.

She walked over and sat on his lap, reaching down to entwine her fingers with his. With her free hand, she brushed an especially enthusiastic stray hair away from his eyes. She smiled softly and simply asked "Now what?" 


	4. -I need your help-

-three-

The Doctor knelt in front of the sofa and studied the little girl, searching her face for any sort of hint. She was physically six years and three months old. He could tell that much, but there was something odd about her timeline. Something he couldn't quite understand. Some more in depth scans were definitely required.

There's was nothing odd about her appearance. She had a very sweet face framed by long unruly hair; it was sort of blondish, sort of reddish. What was that weird name they used? Oh, yes, strawberry blonde. Why strawberry? Why not cherry or raspberry? Raspberry blonde. Wait, does that count as ginger? Ooh, could I dye my hair ginger? Oh, wait, already asked about that with no luck. Rose was not happy. And a happy Rose is a happy Doctor. Right, back to the girl.

There were no freckles or marks on her face - nothing whatsoever to indicate any particular species. Her ears went up at a bit of an elfish angle, but that appeared to be nothing more than a genetic quirk. Physically, the girl appeared to be completely human. Or Time Lord, though that was impossible nowadays. She could be Stoan. Or Katurian. Or Akialposi. Or - well, it doesn't really matter.

Wait, does Katuria even exist in this universe?

Regardless, what was in front of his face did not match what had happened when she had connected to his mind. That chaotic swirl of golden light jumping every which way into his thoughts and memories. He hadn't been able to stop it and that hadn't happened since he was just a kid.

But he also knew that this girl hadn't had any control over it either. She was like some sort of untrained super telepath... but it was more than that. Something was familiar about it.

He sighed. He really did not want to do this. It always felt so wrong. Just a base, gut feeling of "no". Sort of like that itchy, gross feeling that you get when you remember little Tony Tyler trampling through an ants nest and then proceeding to lead them like some sort of insect pied piper over to where you're napping on the grass. But there really was no other way. He looked over at Rose.

"I need your help," he said simply. She nodded quietly.

"What do you need me to do?"

"I need - I need you to..." he trailed off, trying to articulate the swarm of thoughts bouncing around his mind. He laughed helplessly. "I don't know what I need you to do."

"Ok," Rose said slowly, sitting down next to him with her back leaning against the sofa. "What do you need to do, then?"

"I need to go into her mind, Rose."

"Like with that girl and the Isolus, yeah?" He smiled a little; his Rose was brilliant.

"A bit more than that," the Doctor replied. "With Chloe Webber, I only had to put her to sleep, but this is..." He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "I have to actually go inside her mind and find out where she came from and what happened to make her like this."

"But she said you could. I remember her sayin' that."

"Yes, but..." The Doctor sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh, how do I explain this... Ok! Say you fall ill suddenly in the street. And this bloke comes up and says he can look into your mind and fix it. Seems like a trustworthy fellow because, well, look at me." He grinned.

"Is this some bloke or you?"

"Oi, focus," the Doctor protested. "Anyway, you agree but then pass out. Now, you've given this man permission to look inside your mind - where everything you know, everything you remember, everything you don't remember, everything that makes you you exists. And you're not conscious. You can't stop him from looking at something you don't want him to see. Even if he means well, he might accidentally see something or make you remember something."

"You... you can do that?" Rose asked in a quiet voice.

"I can, but I don't. I never would. Never without permission." Something about the force behind his statements made her wonder how many of his kind hadn't followed those guidelines. Rose laid her hand on his.

"She gave you permission."

"But she's not conscious! Ok, normally, I tell someone that if you don't want me to see something, just imagine a door shutting and I won't go in there. But she - she can't! She has no choice right now! Can you imagine letting someone inside your mind like that? Unprotected? Unguarded? I would never, NEVER look at anything on purpose, but the mind - the mind, Rose, it's a very delicate thing and I am very out of practice. I might do something that makes her feel as though her mind has been violated and she's a child! Just a child, Rose. I just - "

"Doctor," Rose interrupted his rant calmly. "You can't do it when she's awake, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"And she said it's ok, so stop bein' difficult and just get on with it!" Rose smiled softly. "I know it's hard, but it's gotta be done. And I'll be right here with you, ok?" The Doctor leaned over and kissed her.

"I love you," he said quietly.

"Love you, too." She swatted his arm playfully to break the tension. "Now let's get this over with, yeah?" The Doctor nodded and gently placed his fingers on the little girl's temples.

"I just need to find out where she got that power and how she got here," the Doctor muttered, furrowing his brow in concentration.

Silence descended on the room as the Doctor slowly searched the child's mind and tried to ignore his own feelings of disgust at his actions.

His eyes flew open and he jerked away from the little girl.

"But... but, that's impossible," he breathed. "How can you even... how are you not dead?!" he exclaimed, staring at the girl.

"Doctor?" Rose asked. "What is it?"

"It's - she's - but how?!"

"Doctor!" The Doctor looked over at Rose in alarm. "What's wrong? What is she?"

Thousands of words poured through his mind in search of an explanation he could give. He was having trouble wrapping his own mind around this. How could he being to put it in terms that Rose would understand? She was brilliant, his Rose, but this...

And then he knew exactly what to say.

"Bad Wolf." 


	5. -another unearthly child-

"What d'ya mean, Bad Wolf?" Rose asked, alarmed. "Is she me or somethin'? Another me?!"

"No, it's nothing like that, it's just..." The Doctor grabbed at his hair in frustration. "She's not exactly the Bad Wolf because, I mean, obviously, as you said, she's not you. And you have always been and always will be the Bad Wolf. But! But! She basically is the same, but she's fine. She has the entire Time Vortex running through her entire mind and she's not dead, not even dying, she's fine. Not even a Time Lord would be able to handle all of that for this long... killed me once at any rate. It doesn't make any sense!"

"So, she's got... hold on, though, you said before that if a Time Lord had all that, they'd be a vengeful god, right? So, 's she like some sort of god now?"

"Well, not exactly. Well, not anymore. She's got the wrong one running through her." The Doctor's eyes met Rose's. "She's not from this universe... She's not from this universe!" He jumped to his feet. "Ohh, I'm being thick again. Thickity thick thick thick! She came over because she can't control it in the other universe!" He frowned a little. But then why can t she control it right now... Something s still wrong.

"Doctor, wait. Does that mean the walls are breaking down again? Creatures from the Void coming over?" The Doctor reached into one of his pockets and pulled out his 3-D glasses. He looked at the girl and shook his head.

"No void stuff. Nothing." He turned back to Rose and jumped a little. "Blimey! I forgot that you're swimming in that stuff. You're lit up like a Christmas tree."

He tore the glasses from his face and shoved them back into the depths of his pocket. He walked over to the area near the windows where the girl had first appeared. He sat down very carefully next to where she had been lying and closed his eyes.

Rose leaned back against the sofa and watched him. He didn't move except for moving his head slightly ever so often, almost as though he could feel a breeze coming from somewhere. She was startled when she felt a light touch on her arm. She glanced up to see Jackie hovering nearby with four cups of tea.

"He alright?" Jackie asked very quietly as she set the cups down on the coffee table.

"I think he's looking for somethin'," Rose whispered back. She leaned forward to grab her tea.

"I need to wake her up. I can't fix this," the Doctor announced suddenly. He stood and walked back towards them.

He paused and picked up a cuppa and took a sip.

"Ahhh, that's the stuff." He set the cup back down and gave Jackie a grateful kiss on the cheek.

"You're waking her up?" Rose asked. The Doctor nodded and leaned over the girl, placing his fingers gently back on her temples. He closed his eyes in concentration for only a second. The girl's eyes fluttered open and he released her immediately.

"What..." the girl started to ask, looking around in confusion. The Doctor picked her up gently and walked towards the large windows.

"Just concentrate on my voice," he said quietly as he set her on the ground so she was standing directly in front of where she had appeared. He knelt down beside her so he could be closer to her height. "Good. Now what's your name?"

"...Jane Doe," she replied after a moment. The Doctor glanced back and exchanged a look with Rose. Now is not the time, he decided.

"Ok, Jane, don't think about anything else. Concentrate on my voice."

Jane nodded, staring at the air in front of her, her eyes searching the area as though she could see something they couldn't.

"I need you to close the door. Can you do that for me?" he asked.

She nodded slowly and reached out into the air. She ran her fingers straight down an invisible line in front of her until she stopped at a point in front of her nose. She reached out further and seemed to wrap her hand around the edge of something. Jackie's jaw dropped as Jane's fingers vanished as though she were clutching the edge of an invisible door.

"Good," the Doctor said quietly. "Now close the door."

Jane started shaking violently.

"He must die," she muttered. "He can't die, must die, will die, won't die, will, won't can't must must must must must."

"Jane. Close the door." the Doctor said in a firm voice. The girl gasped for air. Her hands shook and twitched as she moved her hand from the door edge and began to push on the empty space before her.

"But he can't he can't please no I'll stop it somehow stop it stop it no can't he must he must he must," she seemed incapable of stopping her speech.

"Close it." The Doctor gently put his hand on her back. Still stammering and muttering, the girl nodded and pushed hard.

Abruptly, she gasped loudly, gulping and desperate for air as though she had been underwater for too long, and fell backwards into the Doctor's arms. He picked her up and placed her in the armchair.

"Hello," he said with a grin. "Glad to see you back with us. Well, I suppose, with us. Don't know if you were quite here before."

Jane smiled, tucking an unruly strand of hair behind her ear.

"So! One more thing I need to test with you before anything else," the Doctor continued.

"I know," she replied. "I'm ready." The Doctor studied her for a moment before nodding.

"Concentrate, ok?" the Doctor said quietly. "Concentrate on not getting sucked in."

Jane nodded and took a deep breath. The Doctor reached out and touched her bare hand. Her entire body jerked at the contact.

"Tell me about the other people in this room," the Doctor said quietly, holding her hand.

"There are two women," Jane replied softly. "Oh, the younger one, oh, she and you have - "

"No." the Doctor interrupted firmly. "Concentrate, remember. Don't look at that. Put it in a room and shut the door."

She nodded and closed her eyes.

"Now, tell me about the two women," he said. The girl opened her eyes again.

"They both have blonde hair." Jane paused and smiled. "I think they both dye it though," she said confidentially. The Doctor bit his lip to keep his laughter back. Jane paused to take a shaky breath. "The younger one is wearing jeans and a pink t-shirt."

"Very good. And the older?"

"She's wearing black pants and a pretty blouse."

"Excellent. Now, I know this will be hard, but can you describe me?" Frightened hazel eyes met the Doctor's calm dark brown ones. "You can do this, Jane," the Doctor assured her. "Just concentrate."

"You... you have dark brown hair. ...it's not ginger."

"Concentrate," the Doctor repeated, raising his eyebrows. "Stay in the present."

"Your nose is crooked," the girl replied. She giggled at the Doctor's exaggerated offended expression. "You have freckles."

"Good," the Doctor was smiling now. "What else?"

"You're wearing a black shirt. You haven't shaved today 'cause your face is all scratchy looking."

"And what's my name?" he asked. Jane wrinkled her brow in confusion.

"I - I dunno. You didn't say," she admitted. The Doctor's face broke into a wide grin.

"Well done!" He exclaimed, sweeping the girl up into his arms in a big hug. "Oh, well done indeed, Janie. Can I call you Janie? It suits you better. Oh, you're brilliant, you are!"

"...Doctor?" Rose ventured hesitantly from where she and Jackie were awkwardly standing by the sofa, sipping their tea and waiting for some form of explanation.

"Right! Yes, sorry. I just had to make sure we weren't going to implode!" he smiled and walked over to them, still carrying Jane. "I'm the Doctor and this is Rose and this is Rose's mum Jackie."

"Who is she?" Jackie asked.

"Oh, didn't you hear her? She said 'Jane Doe'," the Doctor replied, shifting the girl in his arms so he could look at her. "Right?" Jane smiled and nodded.

"Oh, the pair of you," Jackie sighed. "John Smith and Jane Doe. Really now." The Doctor grinned and set Jane down.

"Now, I bet you're hungry, huh," the Doctor said to Jane. She looked around the room nervously a bit before nodding. "Right, that blue drug tends to do that. Jackie, would you mind taking Janie into the kitchen for a snack?" the Doctor asked.

"What? Why?" The Doctor leaned in close.

"I need to talk to Rose," he murmured. Jackie nodded.

"Okay, sweetheart, let's get you some food, ok?" Jackie smiled down at the girl. Jane looked down shyly and nodded. Jackie put her hand gently on Jane's back and led her out of the room.

"Try not to touch her bare skin right now, Jackie!" the Doctor called after them. "It's a long story!" He sighed heavily and plopped down onto the couch. He pulled Rose down to him in a hug and just held her silently.

"Rose?" he said finally. She pulled back to face him. "Jane, she's... oh, how do I say this..."

"I should really take a picture," Rose mused. "Y'know, to commemorate the day that you were at a loss for words."

"Oi, watch it!" he protested with a laugh. 


	6. -five words or less-

"Alright, Doctor," Rose smiled, laying her hand on his arm. "Five words or less. Tell me what's wrong."

"Five words?!" he squeaked out.

"Yep. I reckon you're havin' trouble because there's too much you want to say and it's too 'emotional'." Rose made an exaggerated quotation motion with her hands. "So, keep it simple and we'll go from there."

"Have I told you today how much I adore you?" The Doctor cupped her face in his hands.

"That's ten words and you're stalling," Rose grinned. The Doctor dropped his hands and leaned back with a heavy sigh.

"I have to raise her."

"Raise her?" Rose repeated. "Seein' as how she's not dead, I'm guessing you mean -"

"She has the entire Time Vortex of the other universe running through her mind, Rose. We can't send her back there. She literally could destroy all of creation by accident. Just one nightmare could send her little mind over the edge. She needs mental training to control what she has in her mind. Even here, she has an incredible amount of power and it needs to be controlled."

"And you're the only one who can do it," Rose smiled. Oh, her Doctor, always saving the world, even one child at a time. Something in her had known, as soon as he had started stalling, that this is what he was going to say.

"Yes. I'm sorry, Rose, but there's just no other way for me to keep a close eye on her other than to, er, keep a close eye on her." He cupped Rose's face in his hands again and kissed her forehead. "I'm so sorry. I know you didn't want children."

"What? I never said that," Rose replied, raising her eyebrows.

"I know, but, well, you never mentioned it at all - seem to always be avoiding the subject, to be honest – and I just figured it was because you didn't want children." The Doctor released her face to tug on his ear.

"I was avoiding the subject because – oh, never mind, we'll get into this later," Rose sighed in exasperation. She pushed off of him and stood up. "Tell me this, Doctor – is she dangerous?"

"Yes. Well, not in the way you mean. I mean, I'm rather dangerous myself." He grinned up at her and she laughed. "She's very powerful, but she's also just a little girl. She doesn't mean any harm – if she did, we'd all be dead already."

"Oh, well, that's a relief!" Rose took the Doctor's hand and pulled him up to stand beside her. "What's up with the name, though? 'Jane Doe'? Do you honestly believe that's her real name?"

"'Course not," he scoffed, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her hair. "But… there are reasons for needing to hide your name. As young as she is, her name could be twisted up with the power of the Vortex. Like your Bad Wolf. There's great power to be found in a name, Rose."

Rose smiled and opened her mouth to speak – a sharp little retort about his utter lack of a name.

"There were civilizations oh so many years ago where a name could kill," the Doctor continued, shocking Rose into silence. "Old magic. Well, science for those cultures. Using words and rhythms instead of numbers and chemicals. In the hands of certain people, a single name could take possession of your very soul…"

"And you let me go around introducing myself to everyone!" Rose exclaimed, pulling back to stare at him incredulously. The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Ah, yes, well, to be honest, those species are basically extinct. I only know of a couple members of one specific race still in existence. Well, sort of in existence. More like in captivity. Well, when I say captivity, I mean that I trapped them in their own crystal ball and have it banging about the TARDIS somewhere. Not our little TARDIS, my old one."

"Doctor..." Rose groaned.

"Sorry, er… yes, sorry, so! Jane!" The Doctor smiled hopefully in his sorry-I'm-a-Time-Lord-and-get-distracted-easily-I- love-you-sorry way. Rose laughed.

"Yes. Jane. So, we're adopting her, I suppose?"

"What? Oh! Right, records and all that. Ugh, and the press." The Doctor scrunched up his face in disgust. "The paparazzi is going to be crawling all over us again."

"Don't worry about them. This'll be easy to spin. Just gotta do a press release, maybe a talk show -"

"Talk show?" the Doctor instantly perked up.

"And that'll be that" Rose continued, ignoring him. "Ask again for our privacy during this transition time, you know the drill. Pretty soon, some celebrity will do something daft and we'll be old news again." The Doctor nodded. "So, there's just one thing left to discuss really."

"What's that?"

"Should we try to convince my mum that she willed a grandchild into existence?" Rose asked with a serious expression. The Doctor's eyes lit up and his face broke into a huge grin. He grabbed her hand and ran out of the room, with her by his side, just like the old days.


	7. -a story in meanwhiles-

_Ten years later_

Jane called her the Dream Girl.

Every night when Jane slept, they would go on adventures together. Racing one another through the never ending halls a deserted library the size of a planet, dancing with twin princes in the royal court of Anjai'nger, doodling things on the Face of Boe's tank... mad, impossible things.

The dreams always started the same.

She was only aware of her heartbeat.

It was loud. Hollow and echoing in her ears.

Everything around her was so bright, as though she were in the centre of the sun.

Music.

Soft, haunting music, swirled around her, washing over her.

A quiet laugh. Soft – almost the sound of a smile.

She turned and there before her was herself, but not herself. Older, golden, so bright, so wise, and so very sad.

"Hello, Jane," the woman always said quietly.

"Who are you?" she always asked. Her other self always shook her head.

"It's not time yet, little one." The other her always reached out and took her hand. "Where shall we go tonight?" And then they were off.

And then came the morning that Jane awoke from a dreamless sleep.

And she knew it was time.

She silently got dressed, walked into the hallway outside her bedroom and vanished.

"Doctor!"

The panicked scream jerked the Doctor out of his unplanned nap. He was dazed for a moment and looked around in confusion, trying to figure out if the scream had been in his dreams or if it had really –

"DOCTOR!"

Jackie.

The Doctor leapt from the armchair and sprinted out of the room. He almost rammed into Jackie Tyler, who was standing only a few meters away, staring at a closed door.

"What is it? What happened?" the Doctor asked quickly. He put his hands protectively on Jackie's shoulders and looked her over for signs of injury or distress. Wait.

He froze and turned his head. Instinctively, he took a step back and placed his mother-in-law behind him.

"Jackie, where did that door come from?" he asked in a low voice.

"I don't know. I came outta the loo an' she was just staring at the open door. She looked at me and said sorry an' that I'd understand and then she jus'... Doctor, Rose just ran through it!"

"What?!" he stared at the door, one eyebrow cocked in disbelief. He whipped out his sonic and scanned the door, but it was just simple wood... from this side at least. Time had been that he would have jumped through that doorway without even thinking, but now...

He clenched his jaw and looked over his shoulder down the hallway.

"Go," Jackie said quietly. The Doctor looked down at her in shock.

"But..." He looked up at the ceiling desperately, hoping for some sort of answer. Sighing resignedly, he reached out and pulled Jackie towards him in a fierce hug, kissing the top of her head. "Thank you," he said thickly.

"Bring her home safe, 's all I ever ask," she replied.

"I always will," he promised. "You take care of things here for me, ok?"

"Of course! 's what I'm here for! Now go, you big half alien git. Go find my daughter and bring her back so I can have a few words with her!"

The Doctor turned towards the door and couldn't help grinning as that familiar surge of adrenaline took over. It had been way too long.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and stepped through.

Clara Oswald stretched her arms above her head lazily. They were drifting in the Vortex for a couple of days while the TARDIS recalibrated something or other. She wasn't really sure and never bothered even trying to understand the complicated machine. Normally, the Doctor would have dropped her off at home before heading out to the Vortex, but the kids had been a bit... much lately and Clara really could use the vacation.

She had just come from a few refreshing laps in the pool and padded silently down the hallway. She was wearing a relatively modest two piece – more sporty than seductive – and had her towel tied lazily around her hips like a sarong. Clara ruffled her hair a bit, trying to encourage it to air dry.

SLAM.

Clara froze and turned her head in the direction of the noise. Loud footsteps followed. Someone was running towards her.

"Doctor?" she called out warily. "You all right?"

No reply. Clara sighed, wondering what he had managed to do this time. She stalked towards the noise and rounded the corner, immediately colliding with the person who had been running towards her.

Clara jumped to her feet and moved back, her eyes narrowing a bit.

"Who are you?" she asked. "How did you get in here?"

The man got to his feet. He was tall and slim with brown pinstriped trousers accentuating his long legs. He was wearing a rumpled white button down with a dark blue and red swirl patterned tie hanging loosely around his neck as though he had started to take it off and changed his mind. His hair was dark brown and immaculately styled into that perfect tousled look. His face was scruffy, but in a controlled intentional way. He looked incredibly put together and incredibly casual and loose at the same time.

Basically, he was gorgeous.

Clara decided that, should he prove to not be a homicidal alien, perhaps he could stay on board. Since the Doctor was obviously out of bounds, no harm in inviting along another possibility. She was never one for an older man, but she decided she could definitely make an exception.

The man stared at her for a moment before sighing heavily and dragging his hand down along his scruffy chin.

"I need to see the Doctor," he said finally.


	8. -the itch-

The Doctor whirled his way around the console, letting his coat flare a bit as he spun. Coat flaring was cool, he decided. What was decidedly not cool, however, was that new annoying itch at the back of his mind.

He must have forgotten something. Yes, that was definitely it.

He'd had a faint irritation there for a while now, but it wasn't enough to really bother him. But suddenly it had become quite insistent. Very strange.

Actually, wait, no. It wasn't strange. It was... Somehow he knew this itchy feeling but he couldn't quite remember what it was. Perhaps once he remembered it would go away. That must be it.

He heard footsteps coming down the hall. The TARDIS brightened the lights near the corridor entrance.

"I see you're finally warming to Clara!" the Doctor said approvingly, running his hand along the console. The TARDIS made a faint snorting sound, as though she were rolling her non-existent eyes. Stranger still.

Not strange - mysterious! Yes! Just a lovely mystery to solve! Perhaps he could even wear his Sherlock Holmes hat again.

"Clara!" the Doctor exclaimed without turning around. That itch was really getting quite annoying. Was it an infection? Some sort of mind mosquito perhaps?

"Doctor, there's -"

"Have you ever felt like you were forgetting something vastly important?" the Doctor cut Clara off. "And have you seen my Sherlock Holmes hat?"

"Well, I'm glad to see we're still rude at least." The Doctor froze, his hand hovering over a switch. No, he must be having hallucinations now. Perhaps he wasn't even in the TARDIS. Maybe he was back in... whatever planet it was he last got arrested on. To be honest, the jails all kind of blurred together after a while - apparently the condition and decor of prisons was perhaps the one constant across the universe.

He wondered what that said about the state of said universe.

"Doctor?" Clara ventured hesitantly.

"Oh, now he's ignoring me. I never ignored people! Well, when I say ignored, I may have disregarded insignificant things a bit. Well, when I say a bit, I mean... But, honestly, it never harmed things at all! ...well, except maybe that thing about the bees with Donna... really should have paid attention to that one..."

"It's you!" the Doctor suddenly shouted. "You're the itch!" He whirled around and let his coat swish cooly around him.

The thing that shocked the Doctor the most was that he was old.

Old wasn't really the right word to describe his former right hand, but it was just shocking to see the face he used to wear aged. He noticed how the laugh lines had deepened around the eyes. How the formerly clean shaven face was now covered with rough stubble. How the other man was just slim rather than a skinny streak of nothing now.

He noticed the simple gold band around the left ring finger. And his hearts ached, not sure whether to be thrilled with joy or heartbroken.

"Oi, you gonna stand there and stare all day?" his former hand asked, raising an eyebrow. He was one angle of the head away from a perfect Donna Noble impersonation.

"No! Of course not! Sorry, I'm just... You're old. Ah, not that. That just came blurting out, didn't it." The Doctor abruptly shut his mouth, telling his brain to get ahold of itself so that he could properly communicate without making a complete ass of himself.

"Well, it's been a while," his hand replied. "Human aging, single heart, me." The man sighed.

"Now, I could go all storming in and demanding, but there's really no need."

"What?"

"And I'm not even going to ask how or why you did this, but just let me get Rose and we'll go home, ok?"

"Rose? I haven't... you lost Rose?!" the Doctor looked at the other man sharply.

"I didn't lose anyone!" his hand exclaimed defensively. "She has a thing for magnificent sentient ships that travel in space and time!"

"What?"

"Seriously, I just don't have time for the banter," his hand sighed, glancing down at his watch. "Ten more minutes tops, and that's pushing it."

"What?" the Doctor was incredibly confused.

"So just call Rose back from wherever she's wandered to and we'll go home."

"You - you - what?!"

"Oh, am I still doing that what? what? what?! thing?" his hand grinned, bouncing on his feet a little. "I always kind of liked that. Very simple, but dramatic."

"You barge into my console room and ask where Rose is and - How did you even get here?!" The Doctor whipped out the sonic and started scanning his former hand. Said hand's face fell immediately.

"Rose isn't here."

"No." The two stared at one another in heavy silence.

"...Rose isn't here!" His former hand turned and sprinted away from them, back down the hallway. "No no no no no no!" he yelled, skidding to a stop in front of the door he'd come through.

The door was flickering in and out of existence as the TARDIS struggled to hold onto the connection. No, he had to get back! He couldn't get stuck here!

"Come on old girl, try to hold it," he murmured as he grabbed the doorknob and pulled.

When the Doctor and the increasingly confused Clara caught up to him, he was standing in the middle of the corridor holding a doorknob and staring hopelessly at a wall.


	9. -WANA-

"So what you're saying is that you lost your hand in a sword fight," Clara said skeptically.

"Yes!" the Doctor said enthusiastically. "Technically, my right hand is around 900 years younger than the rest of my body!"

"Riiight. And then some meta-thing happened- "

"Human / Time Lord metacrisis," the Doctor supplied helpfully.

"And he grew out of the hand," Clara continued, ignoring the Doctor. That was just best sometimes if you ever wanted to get to the point of things. "And then you left him on a parallel world with this Rose person who you used to travel with because he's part human."

"Precisely!"

"Right. I have two questions. One, how in the world did you manage to not lose more than just your hand in a sword fight?"

"I will have you know, Clara, that I am an expert swordsman!"

"Doctor, sometimes I think you can't even walk properly!" Clara exclaimed incredulously.

"That is all to throw people off, trick them into revealing their evil plots, et cetera," the Doctor replied, smoothing down his jacket in an almost preening manner.

"And that's why you hit your head on the kitchen cabinet the other day?"

"That door was open!"

"You were the one opening it!"

"Can you two please shut up?!" the other Doctor snapped, opening his eyes to glare over at them. He had been standing quietly, leaning slightly with his forehead pressed against the wall where the door once was, since the explanation of his existence had begun.

Clara immediately closed her mouth, pressing her lips into a line.

"I thought we'd learned the last time that leaning on the wall doesn't fix things," the Doctor said quietly.

"Please, just be quiet for a few minutes. Can you just do that?"

The corridor fell into silence.

"Up there, too," the other Doctor sighed, opening his eyes again to gesture at the Doctor's forehead. "Put a damn wall up, for crying out loud. You project so loudly, I'm surprised that I wasn't getting a bloody play-by-play from Tony's World."

"Oh. Sorry." Clara was surprised to see that the Doctor look properly horrified. Make that three questions then, she thought.

All was quiet again for a few minutes. The TARDIS even seemed to be trying to help; there wasn't a creak, groan or whisper. The ever present hum even seemed muted.

"Thanks," the other Doctor at last, opening his eyes. He sighed. "Well, the good news is that the connection is strong enough that I can still feel them faintly if I concentrate. The bad news is that they're about to wake up and aren't going to be happy to find us both gone..." He trailed off and shook his head quickly like he was clearing his mind. "So! Clara Oswald, you had another question?"

"Wait, who -" the Doctor started.

"Ah ah ah - Clara was first," the other Doctor held up a finger in a scolding manner.

"Did you really come from a hand?" Clara asked, staring at the finger he was holding up.

"Yup," the other Doctor replied, popping the 'p' and rolling back on his heels a bit. He held up his right hand and wiggled his fingers.

"Okay then... What am I supposed to call you? You're both the Doctor? That might get confusing in the yelling and running situations that I've become accustomed to."

"Oh. Huh. I don't know," the other Doctor mused. "It hasn't really come up. We just call him 'the other one' or 'the other me'."

"The other one?! That's rude!" the Doctor protested.

"Well, Tony's taken to calling you Doctor 1.0," the other one snickered. "Besides, rude and not ginger, kind of my thing."

"You must have some sort of human-y name since you're off doing... human-y things."

"You don't really need a 'human-y name' to get laid, if that's what you mean."

"That is - I know that! That is not what I meant!" the Doctor sputtered, turning red. The other Doctor was grinning, hands stuffed in his pockets.

"Doctor John Theta Tyler," the other Doctor answered after letting his counterpart embarrass himself in front of his companion for a bit. "But no one really calls me by any of those. Well, except for official legal-y things. Well, that and the tabloids. They called me 'JT' at first - that one wasn't to bad, but then it was 'Johnny Wander' since I do tend to meander a bit. 'Where has Johnny Wander gone now?' 'Johnny Wander off to America alone? Is it trouble in paradise for our Vitex Rose?' That sort of thing. Actually! Johnny Wander is a name of a lovely little webcomic in your universe! Wonderful slice of life type things. I haven't checked if it's in Tony's World or not, but - "

"Doctor," Clara interrupted.

"Ah, sorry, yes, I tend to... ramble." He tugged on his earlobe, looking sheepish. "Anyway! I honestly don't know how well I'd respond to it in a crisis situation, although, if we were running and yelling, you'd probably need both of us anyway, so just think of it as a shortcut."

"Speaking of names!" the Doctor interjected before Clara could reply. "Who were you contacting in Pete's World? There shouldn't be anyone you can contact like that! And why are you calling it Tony's World?"

"We started calling it Tony's World as a joke and it sort of stuck. And I was contacting my children."

"...your what." The Doctor was staring at his counterpart, his face suddenly very serious.

"My children, Doctor," the other Doctor replied. "Rose and I have twins. They're two and a half."

"And... and they're -"

"Mostly Time Lord. Dominant genes."

Clara looked back and forth between the Doctors nervously. This whole thing was so very very weird. I mean, this new Doctor basically was the Doctor, right? Did this mean the Doctor had kids now? Actually, he had mentioned a granddaughter before now that she thought about it.

"We're not alone," the Doctor said finally.

"We're not alone," the other Doctor confirmed, his face breaking into a brilliant grin.


	10. -questions-

"Oh, this is brilliant! What are their names? Are they developing like a human or a Time Lord? Hmm, what should I have them call me? I suppose I'd be more like an uncle than any other sort of relative. Uncle Doctor? Is that odd? Perhaps just 'the Uncle'. Oh, but then they have their Uncle Tony, I suppose, so that's not going to work. Is it still just Tony for Jackie and Pete? Well, besides Rose, of course. How long has it been for you anyway? How was the pregnancy? Was it terribly difficult for her? Was this planned? I thought we wouldn't be able to impregnate without some scientific intervention... Did you do some gene manipulation? Why are you two staring at me like that?"

"...you about done there?" Clara asked, her eyebrows raised. She looked over at the other Doctor. "Do you get like that too?"

"No," he replied quickly. He paused and absentmindedly rubbed the back of his head. "Well, maybe a bit... well, when I say a bit, I really mean that -"

"Oh no, don't you get started!" Clara interrupted, holding her hand up.

"Right. Sorry." The other Doctor looked properly admonished.

"So?" the Doctor asked, looking at his... brother? expectantly. Clara decided to think of them as brothers. It was easier for her to wrap her mind around.

"No," Clara stated firmly, pointing at the Doctor. "Before we get into all of that, I need to know what the hell is going on! How did he hear his kids if they're in a parallel world? And why didn't you ever mention any of this before? It's kind of important to know a) if your metaclonebrother person is going to just show up in the halls and b) that if you ever lose a limb, another you will grow out of it!" She paused and smacked her Doctor on the arm. "Are you like a worm or something?"

"No no no, I'm a unique event in time and space. Never been anything like me before," the other Doctor replied, grinning at the echoes of his conversation with Donna.

"And he shouldn't be able to get here!" the Doctor added. "Travel between parallel worlds is impossible now."

"Yeah... Rose doesn't let me use that word anymore," the other Doctor commented, tugging on his earlobe.

"He can hear the children because Time Lords have a sort of telepathic network with one another," the Doctor continued, ignoring his metacrisis. "It's also why he needed me to be quiet up here." The Doctor tapped his temple. "I'm not used to shielding my thoughts on that level anymore."

"Telepathic? What like you can read minds?" Clara stepped back, a look of mild horror and disgust on her face. "Are you reading mine? What sort of weird mind things have you been up to?"

"I'd need physical contact to establish a telepathic connection with a non-telepathic species such as human," the other Doctor replied. "I can show you, if you'd like."

"Uh..."

"I'd never go into someone's mind without permission, Clara," the Doctor added. "Not unless it was a life-and-death emergency."

"What kind of physical contact? Oh God, it IS a snog box, isn't it!"

"No!" the Doctor protested.

"A what?!" the other Doctor exclaimed at the same time, staring at the full Time Lord. "What in Rassilon's pajamas have you been up to?!"

"It's not a snog box!" the Doctor exclaimed. "And the last time I had to make a telepathic connection with a human, I headbutted him."

"What?!" the other Doctor exclaimed again.

"You are so not headbutting me," Clara shook her head, crossing her arms.

"Seriously, what have you been doing? Headbutting people? Making the old girl into a snog box?" The other Doctor shook his head and turned to Clara. "Ignoring the violent rugby player over there -"

"Oi!"

"I establish a telepathic connection by placing my hands on the other person's temples. It's completely painless. Like I said I can show you if you'd like. But later." He turned to the so-called violent rugby player Doctor. "First I need to find my wife. And then we find a way back to Tony's World."

Jackie Tyler stared hopelessly at the door the Doctor had disappeared behind. If it wasn't for her grandbabies, she would have followed him straightaway. She turned around and leaned against the railing, looking down over the entryway. What was she going to do if they didn't come back? Or if they didn't come back for years?

She didn't know anything about raising Time Lords. And those sweet little tots definitely had smarts that didn't come from Rose's side of things. What if there's some sort of time thing they need to happen? She sighed and closed her eyes.

At least she'd have Pete and Tony to help her. Much easier than when it was just her and her Rose on the estate all those years. Actually, she should probably see if Tony was around. They tended to be a bit of a handful when they woke from their naps.

Jackie turned back towards the hallway and fished her mobile out of her pocket, but before she could dial, the sound of a door opening grabbed her attention.

"Mum, what're you doin' standing in the hall like that?" Rose asked, walking towards Jackie out of her and the Doctor's bedroom. "Seriously, with the kids up and everythin'... they're chatterin' so loud, I could hear 'em in our room."

Rose shook her head and walked past Jackie and went straight into the twins' room, leaving Jackie gaping, completely speechless in the silent house.


	11. -the door-

He was absolutely terrified and that unnerved her. She'd never felt fear from her Dad before. He was covering it exceptionally well, but she could still feel it.

She wasn't sure if he had just been better at masking his emotions in front of her before or if he genuinely had never been this scared before. She didn't even remember feeling fear from him on that awful day when she'd almost died and Tony'd...

She shook her head to clear her thoughts and ran her hands over the console.

"Hello, old girl," she murmured softly. "Remember me?"

_What are you doing here? _the TARDIS replied.

"Oh, you know, just a bit of sightseeing. Larking about, as Mum said that time she was possessed by a bitchy trampoline."

_Why will you do this?_

"You know why!" she hissed angrily. "You know as well as I do what has to be done and who has to do it."

_It is not yet a fixed point. It has not been too late._

"Well, it will be."

_Their hearts are all breaking. Right before me. Is this really what you want, little one?_

"Look at the time lines. Tell me I missed something. Tell me this doesn't make everything so much better for everyone in the long run."

Silence.

"That's what I thought," she sighed.

She punched in coordinates and flipped the switch to begin the dematerialization. She walked over and placed her hand on the front doors, smiling sadly over her shoulder at the time rotor as it began to move.

Then Jane Tyler turned and pushed the doors open. She stepped out into the Vortex and disappeared.

A few moments later, the three occupants of the time ship burst in from the hallway.

"What did you do?!" the two Doctors yelled at one another in unison, freezing in the doorway. Brown and gray-green eyes narrowed. "Me?! I didn't do anything!"

"Who cares who did it - fix it," Clara complained, pushing past them both towards the console.

"Clara!" The Doctor watched the tweed covered arm of his former self (future former self? post-former self? Oh, the metacrisis made things difficult) shoot past him and grab Clara roughly by the arm. He pulled the girl back behind him, pushing the Doctor back along with her.

"Hey! Watch it!" Clara protested.

"What is it?" the Doctor asked. His former self was looking out over the console room, filling the space of the doorway as best he could in his lanky form.

"The door is open," he replied tersely.

"What?!" The Doctor leaned over the tweed Time Lord's shoulder, his eyes widening at the sight of the Vortex swirling and spinning past them at breakneck speed.

"Ok, so, whoever just set the coordinates obviously left and forgot to shut the door," Clara stated reasonably.

"Don't be ridiculous. You can't put the TARDIS into flight with the door open," the non-metacrisised Time Lord replied, rolling his eyes. "You could enter coordinates, but you can't remotely force her to take off."

"So whoever did this is still in here?"

"Obviously not, Clara. The TARDIS wouldn't hide someone from me and she said that she isn't the one who set the coordinates. So, whoever did has already left."

"Thank you. You have a very reassuring way about you, Doctor," Clara replied, alarmed at his response.

"See, I didn't think you could even open the door when she was in the Vortex," the Doctor added, staring at the swirling reddish purple haze.

"Nor did I... But, to be fair, we never exactly tried," his former-future-kind-of-brother-like-self added.

"Right, I mean that would be suicide," the Doctor agreed.

"So someone came in here on a suicide mission to send us off somewhere?" Clara asked warily.

"No! Well, yes. Possibly." the Doctor's future-former - ok, no, he was just going to think of him as Doctor 1.0. It saved a bit of brain power and from the look of things, the Doctor was going to need all he could get. Good ol' Tony.

"I mentioned the reassuring thing, yeah?"

"Can we land with the doors open?" the Doctor asked. The TARDIS groaned and shook in response. Doctor 1.0 turned and looked at him in alarm.

"We've got to get those doors closed!" he exclaimed. The two stared at one another for a moment before they both wordlessly shoved their hands in their pockets and began digging around.

"You don't have the scarf in there, by any chance?" the Doctor asked.

"No, it's in the wardrobe! I don't remember where that is right now!" Doctor 1.0 replied. He pulled out a yo-yo. "Damn! Too short!"

"Here, can you hold this?" the Doctor asked Clara as he began piling things in her arms. He was practically down to the elbow in his pocket and still pulling things out.

"Ooh, Jelly Babies!" Doctor 1.0 said gleefully, pausing to snack on an orange one.

"Really? Right now's a good time for a snack?" Clara asked incredulously, her arms currently holding four stuffed animals, a tiny pair of black Converse, three bibs, a pair of toddler-sized denim shorts, a lacy black and pink bra, psychic paper, two bananas, a bottle of water, an open box of condoms, a first aid kit and a bright green remote control car.

"HA! SPARE KITE STRING!" the Doctor exclaimed, shoving a partially full picnic basket at Clara and triumphantly pulling out a ball of string. He ran back down the hallway and wrapped it several times around a pillar before running back. He quickly unrolled a few yards of string before looping it around his waist twice and knotting it securely.

"Wait, no, you're the mortal one, shouldn't I be the one going?" Doctor 1.0 protested.

"You're immortal?!" Clara exclaimed.

"Well, no, not exactly, but more than he is."

"Either one of us goes out that door and we're dead," the Doctor replied, pushing past Doctor 1.0 and into the console room. The TARDIS jerked suddenly and he was sent flying towards the open doors.

"NO!" Doctor 1.0 yelled.

"Doctor!" Clara cried out just as he caught himself on the edge of the console. He beamed back at her as he pulled on a lever to close the door.

"See? I told you the name thing wouldn't matter!"


	12. -myosotis-

The bright blue box materialized silently in the narrow alley of a perfectly ordinary street in London. The alley was mostly a place for the residents to wheel their garbage and recycling out without cluttering up the main road. It was surrounded by walls of sweet picket fences, the sight of which would have given one of the Doctor's previous incarnations a migraine from the sheer domesticity of it.

Inside the bright blue box, the Doctors were arguing over who would be the first one out the door. Clara was arguing with herself over whether their bickering was amusing or incredibly annoying.

"We need to see what we're walking into!" Clara's usual Doctor exclaimed, peering into the view screen.

"Oh, don't be such a wimp." The recently appeared Doctor wrenched the view screen out of his stubborn grasp. Oh, forget it. If her usual Doctor was Doctor 1.0, then this new one would just have to be Doctor 2.0.

"Do you have a death wish suddenly? Don't forget that you're -"

"What?" Doctor 2.0 challenged, raising an eyebrow and staring down his other self. "Fragile? Vulnerable? Human?" The other man looked at the floor. "Don't forget that I still think like you do! Sure, things have happened and changed us, but down at the base, at the core, we're still the same. So don't think you can get all overprotective just because you're too scared to see me die. I've been managing perfectly well for the past twenty years without you."

"Twenty?!" The Doctor's eyes narrowed and he pulled out his sonic screwdriver, scanning Doctor 2.0 quickly. "But you - you've only aged about eight years! That can't be right..."

"Yeah, it's a long story, so..." the second Doctor trailed off, staring at the view screen. His face paled and he abruptly shoved himself away from the console and ran for the door. He paused to grab a long tan coat that had appeared on the coat rack before yanking the doors open.

"What is it?" Clara asked, alarmed as the door practically bounced on its hinges behind Doctor 2.0's retreating figure. The Doctor was staring at the view screen in confusion.

"Nothing. He just up and ran into someone's backyard." He paused and looked at Clara. "Does he seem a little odd to you?"

"...compared to what exactly?"

"Point taken." The Doctor pushed the view screen back into place and walked purposefully towards the doors.

"Not to mention, Doctor, the man's just been trapped here away from his children and his wife is missing. I think he's entitled to act a little strangely."

"Yes, there is an awful lot going on today, isn't there?"

"Just a bit, yeah," Clara agreed as they stepped out into the sunshine.

A few minutes later, they stepped into one of the larger houses in the neighborhood - one that the Doctor insisted his other self had gone into. He claimed it was because he could feel the unique call of a Time Lord/Human hybrid mind. Clara was pretty sure it was because the back gate was swinging open.

"Doctor?" Clara called out hesitantly as she looked around the bright sunny kitchen.

"Yes?" the Doctor replied.

"No, not - I meant the other one," Clara hissed back.

"How was I supposed to know? You were right, Clara, it is quite confusing."

"Well, he doesn't seem keen to give up his own identity because why should he, so why don't you come up with a new name?"

"That - No, I don't have to. I'm the -"

"Doctor!" a new voice broke into their whispered argument. A voice the Doctor hadn't heard since... "What are you doing, you monster! Let them go!"

The Doctor raced out of the room, yanking Clara after him. They sprinted up the stairs, following the voice and burst into what appeared to be the master bedroom.

It was a beautiful room, filled with blues, deep purples and dark wood furniture. A massive skylight took up most of the ceiling, filling the space with gentle sunlight, offsetting the otherwise dark color scheme. A small vase stood on one bedside table holding a small bunch of white myosotis flowers.

Forget-me-nots.

The Doctor took note of none of this, however. Taking in the scene before him, he quickly grabbed the indignant Wilfred Mott and pulled the man he had died for behind him.

"What - who are you? Get your hands off me!" Wilf sputtered. Clara, not knowing what was going on but trusting the Doctor, placed a calming hand on Wilfred's arm. The Doctor stepped forward, pointing his sonic screwdriver at the woman before him.

She was glowing. There really was no other word for it. A golden glow enveloped every inch of her. Every strand of her long wild hair radiated. Her long, graceful hands, stretched out before her, were wrapped in tendrils of golden light.

"Let them go," the Doctor said in a low voice. The woman didn't acknowledge his presence. He stepped forward and pressed the sonic into the small of her back. "I said. Let. Them. Go."

She turned to him and smiled sadly. He hesitated for a moment. Her tearstained face and pained expression reminded him of a mad, wonderful pink and yellow human who had stopped at nothing to save him. She shook her head.

"I can't," she replied. Her voice echoed softly within itself, trembling sound waves bouncing off of themselves. She turned back and raised her arms above her head.

They all watched, frightened and horrified as she lifted the unconscious meta-crisis Doctor and Donna Noble into the air, enveloping them in that same golden light.

Their bodies began to shake and tendrils of light began to reach out between them. As the tendrils connected, they flared up, shining brighter.

"Cover your eyes!" the Doctor shouted, abandoning his one sided confrontation with the woman. He threw his arms around Clara and Wilfred and threw the three of them to the floor.

A loud crackling sizzle filled the air, almost like the sound of a log being thrown onto a fire. The light blazed out from the two figures in the air, filling the house with an impossibly blinding light.

Silence.

At first, the Doctor feared that he had gone deaf. Then he heard Clara take a shaky breath from beneath him. Wilf shifted, his trousers brushing against the hardwood floor.

Slowly, he stood and turned to face the girl. Clara gently helped Wilf to his feet, the pensioner stubbornly waving away her concerned look.

"What have you done," the Doctor said darkly. Donna and the other Doctor were lying side by side on the large bed. They looked so peaceful that he might have been fooled if it weren't for the overwhelming silence echoing in his mind. The tickle of that part-human mind was gone.

The woman turned. He could see her clearly now that the brilliant glow had faded. She was only a girl, just a teenager. She looked at him, calmly meeting his eye, saying nothing. Her eyes were an almost green colour with golden flecks. She had long, wild hair, golden blonde and streaming down her back, loose and untamed.

The Doctor knew better than to be fooled by appearances. He stepped towards her, brandishing his sonic. Her expression never changed, but her eyes seemed sadder the closer he came.

"Who are you? What did you do to them?" he demanded. She smiled gently.

"I fixed it," she replied. The soft tone seemed somehow odd coming from her. Her voice was one that should be shouting, laughing, teasing. Not demure, not resigned.

"Fixed what? What did you do to my Donna?!" Wilf demanded, coming to stand beside the Doctor. He stubbornly resisted the Doctor's attempts to move him out of any potential harm's way.

"I gave her back to you, Wilfred," the girl replied. "I gave her back to you, to the Doctors, to herself."

"Who are you." The Doctor's voice had reached a dangerous tone. His eyes were narrowing and he advanced on the girl. She stepped back until he had her cornered against a wall. Her face was still calm and composed, but her eyes were filled with pain.

"I mean you no harm," she replied. "Please, I am only helping, only have helped, only will help. Trust me."

"Trust you? Why?" he asked. "You won't even tell me who you are!"

"That trait is something I've come by quite naturally, Doctor."

_Get away from her._

The angry command blazed across the Doctor's mind and he took an involuntary step back.

"Doctor! Oh thank goodness!" Wilf exclaimed from behind them. The Doctor felt a heavy hand on his shoulder, pulling him back, forcing him away from the girl.

"What -" the question died on the Doctor's lips as he stared at his meta-crisis self. The part-human tickle was still missing. …no, not missing… it was different now, like he was… no. No, he... He couldn't be. That was just...

"You do not ever, _ever_ threaten my daughter," the meta-crisis Doctor said quietly in the Time Lord's ear, his voice controlled and measured. He pulled back and looked up at the girl. "Janie, love, how did you get here?"

"Oh, come on, Dad, you know that answer better than anyone." Jane grinned. The meta-crisis Doctor laughed and shook his head. He threw his arms around her and swept her into a hug.

"Where's your mum?" he asked after a few relished moments. "Your gran said she disappeared, but I can't find her."

"She's safe. She's at home." She looked away, avoiding his gaze. The smile slowly fell from the meta-crisis Doctor's face.

"Jane, what's going on?" he asked. She shook her head. He took a deep breath and froze, stalled like some awful realization had just slapped him in the face.

He looked at her, horrified. He placed his hand on his chest.

"Oh, no. No, no, no. What have you done?" He reached out and grasped her shoulders. "You brought me here, didn't you? I thought you understood. You can't go around doing things like this!"

"I'm not doing anything that I haven't already done, won't already do, am not already doing," she replied.

"Why are you doing this? Jane Tyler, answer me!"

She reached up on her toes and whispered something to him. With a small sad smile, she stepped out of her horrified dad's grasp, reached her hand into the air and vanished.

"We need to have a talk," the Time Lord Doctor said, angrily grabbing his meta-crisis' arm. "Who the hell was that? Your daughter?! What did you do to her? I know that energy. I know what that means, but I don't know how she has it. What did you do? And why didn't you think to mention it before?"

"Just give me a bloody moment, alright?" the meta-crisis snapped. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you every detail of my life for the past twenty years. Been a little busy. You know, the whole my wife is missing situation. Oh, and being stuck in the wrong universe. Again. Right, and let's not forget the fact that with me stuck here, my wife missing, and Jane going renegade, my children are currently at a very high risk of being raised by Jackie Tyler!"

"Don't you ever stop talking!?" a loud, brash voice slammed in between the two Doctors. They turned. Wilf was smiling gleefully near the bed. Clara seemed to be vaguely at peace with her now constant state of bemusement.

And Donna Noble was sitting up, staring at them as though they were insane.

"Now somebody tell me what the **hell** is going on!"


End file.
